Price increase and international conflicts are two main fears Russians expect to be a serious problem in the future.
MOSCOW, April 16, 2015. Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) presents the results of the survey concerning the biggest fears and problems of Russians.
Increase in prices for goods, devaluation of savings and international tensions are the biggest concerns of Russians. The fear index* made up 19 scores in March; more Russians are concerned with the rising international tensions (14 scores in January 2015).
The indicator showing how much respondents are worried about their health and have fear of not getting adequate medical treatment has decreased over the recent months and reached zero point in March. Other indicators have negative values; most of respondents are not bothered with the cited problems. Thus, the crime fear index is equal to -1; the fear of the internal conflicts makes up -2 scores.
Fewer respondents are afraid of getting lower income due to pay cuts or a shift to a low-paid job; the index decreased to -5 in January and February and to -10 in March. On the contrary, the fear index measuring Russian fear of natural disasters has increased from -19 to -14 since the beginning of the year. The job loss index is -20; about one quarter of Russians believe that job loss is possible (29%), whereas the number of those who are not afraid of losing the job is much bigger (65%). The least important problem for Russians is family discord (-36 scores; the index has seen a six-score decrease since January); more than three-quarters of respondents (79%) do not think that they can have serious conflicts with the relatives.
*Fear index describes how Russians assess the probability of certain problems. The index is based on the question “How would you assess the probability for the following problems to happen in your life?; it is measured in scores and can vary between -100 and 100.
The coefficient “1” is assigned for the response “I am absolutely confident that it will happen”; “0.5”- for the response “I think it will happen” ; “0.1”- for the response “it is likely to happen”; -0.1” - for the response “it is not likely to happen”; “-0.5” - for the response “I think it will not happen”; “-1”- for the response “I am absolutely confident that it will not happen”. The higher the value of index is, the more probable Russians think the problem is.
The survey was conducted on March 28-29, 2015; 1600 respondents were interviewed in 132 communities in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.5%.
How would you assess the probability for the following problems to happen in your life? (closed-ended question, one answer, fear index*) | |||
| January 2015 | February 2015 | March 2015 |
Normal goods have become too expensive, savings devalued | 18 | 19 | 19 |
International tensions, international conflicts , military actions | 14 | 16 | 19 |
Health problems; health deterioration , difficulties getting medical advice and medicine | 4 | 2 | 0 |
Crime outburst | 1 | -1 | -1 |
Upheaval; political, ethnic and religious internal conflicts | -1 | -1 | -2 |
Decrease in income (salary cut, switch to low-paid job, shift to half-time, delay in salary payments et cet.) | -5 | -5 | -10 |
Flood, earthquake, natural disasters | -19 | -17 | -14 |
Job loss | -19 | -18 | -20 |
Family conflicts, break with the loved ones | -30 | -35 | -36 |
How would you assess the probability for the following problems to happen in your life? (closed-ended question, one answer, % of respondents, March 2015) | |||||||
| I am absolutely confident that it will happen (already happened) | I think it will happen | It is likely to happen | It is not likely to happen | I think it will not happen | I am absolutely confident that It will not happen | Don`t know |
Normal goods have become too expensive, savings devalued | 20 | 15 | 28 | 19 | 9 | 5 | 4 |
International tensions, international conflicts , military actions | 19 | 16 | 30 | 20 | 8 | 4 | 4 |
Health problems; health deterioration , difficulties getting medical advice and medicine | 10 | 14 | 21 | 27 | 14 | 9 | 5 |
Crime outburst | 8 | 11 | 23 | 31 | 12 | 8 | 7 |
Upheaval; political, ethnic and religious internal conflicts | 7 | 12 | 25 | 29 | 12 | 8 | 6 |
Decrease in income (salary cut, switch to low-paid job, shift to half-time, delay in salary payments et cet.) | 8 | 10 | 22 | 24 | 13 | 16 | 6 |
Job loss | 5 | 8 | 16 | 29 | 15 | 21 | 8 |
Flood, earthquake, natural disasters | 5 | 9 | 15 | 29 | 17 | 14 | 11 |
Family conflicts, break with the loved ones | 3 | 4 | 9 | 31 | 20 | 28 | 5 |
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